> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon in “Love Actually.” ‘Love’ is actually a dizzying affair
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/hugh-grant-and-martine-mccutcheon-in-love-actually-love-is-actually-a-dizzying-affair/
- Published: 2003-11-07T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:10:39.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

In his directorial debut, “Love Actually,” veteran romantic-comedy scribe Richard Curtis (“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Notting Hill,” “Four Weddings and A Funeral”) weaves a dizzying array of love affairs into a pretty comforter that, even though it’s got a few holes in it, should provide plenty of warmth this holiday season. As Hugh Grant observes during the film’s opening sequence, in Curtis’ snuggled-down idyll “Love actually is all around.”

Boy, is it ever. The love lines include: Grant, Curtis’ go-to guy in this ensemble cast, as Britain’s charming new Prime Minister who falls for a member of his staff (Martine McCutcheon); Liam Neeson plays a widowed stepfather trying to connect with the young son he hardly knows; Emma Thompson is expectedly excellent as a housewife who suspects her husband (Alan Rickman) is straying; Colin Firth’s a lovelorn writer who finds romance where he least expects it; and “It Girl”

Keira Knightley unwittingly holds the keys to a pair of best friends’ hearts.

There are three other stories going on as well, but only one — about an aging pop star (a hilarious Bill Nighy) on an unlikely comeback trail — merits our attention.

And pay attention we must, because there is a lot going on in “Love Actually.” Too much, actually, which is why this film — while likable — will soon be forgotten. Ten different story-lines running concurrently is too hard to follow, especially when only half of them are interesting. The usually superb Laura Linney is in this picture, but in a part so dreadfully underwritten, it’s a wonder she agreed to do it. Same goes for Knightley — blink, and you might miss her. And since we’re quibbling, it should be noted that, with the exception of Nighy and Grant, Curtis — normally a very generous jokester — fails to provide his key players with the level of witticisms we’ve come to expect. Maybe all the love made him dizzy.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/110703-15_01.jpg)

(Photo: BY DAN DUNN Special to the Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 7, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)